What a fun weekend we had!
Although, it didn’t quite start out that way for me. I was out of sorts Saturday morning since I wasn’t running long or teaching class (lack of endorphins!). I ran a few errands, and came back feeling dead tired (waking up for an hour in the middle of the night before probably didn’t help). I felt better after I took my planned nap but was still on edge, probably from 5K race nerves. I wasn’t very fun to be around most of Saturday. It was a funky day.
But Anne and Terry arrived early Saturday evening and the fun began! We hung out, then went out for dinner at TJI Fridays (FU Red Robin), where I got an adult beverage (a mojito with cotton candy in it!) that helped my funk. Then we came back and had s’mores and watched the bad movie I rented for us (The Snowman). Watching bad movies together was our thing when we all lived in Lake County (as was brainstorming plot lines for Kevin James movies). We’d get together once a month to do it (sometimes we’d watch a decent movie, ha).
Data and his new bestie
I woke up with a slight headache (oops) but we had plenty of time to sit around until it was time to leave for our 11:00 am 5K. Enough time to get rid of the headache, and have those 5K nerves come back in full force. Gah. Annoying.
But my nerves immediately went away when I started running. I felt in control and at ease, and enjoyed the race. Anne and I both had great races and appreciated the boys spectating,
and we ALL appreciated El Famous after. (Although I already had “post fast run upset stomach” and couldn’t eat much, wah.)
During lunch we decided to see if we could go to an escape room that night. All of us had heard of them, and were curious, but none of us had been. Terry found one in Zion (Edge of Escape), and we made a reservation to go in the early evening (after we finished The Snowman <— priorities).
The only thing I knew about escape rooms it that you have an hour to solve the clues and get out. I didn’t know that most have a maximum amount of people to go in the room, and that you might be “escaping” with people you don’t know (our room had a max of eight, but it was just the four of us). I didn’t know there were so many places, and plots (at some places) to choose from. I didn’t know it was kind of costly ($30 a person, we didn’t see any Groupons), but after going, I understand why. And I had heard how fun they were, but of course, didn’t get it until I did it!
Will we make it out?!
Edge of Escape was created by the same person who’s been running The Dungeon of Doom (an elaborate haunted house in Zion) for thirty-one years. I’ve never been to the haunted house, but now that I’ve seen how meticulously detailed and neat the escape room is, I want to go to the haunted house. I could not get over how cool everything was from the entrance,
to the waiting area, to, of course, the escape room itself.
Our “escape” was actually helping rescue someone who was stuck in time travel. His friend turned foe trapped him in the 1400s and we had to use clues to get a piece of equipment back to him to get home (and stop the foe from changing history as we know it!!!). When I imagined an escape room in my mind, I thought it would all be logic puzzle solving for some reason, but there was only a little of that. This room was set up so that there were a ton of real effects and different things you had to do and find. Lots of searching for stuff! (And we later found out there were a lot more “puzzles” in there that they do when they have more people in the room.)
We never would have gotten out in time without LOTS of clues from the owner over the microphone, ha! I thought it was challenging, but we enjoyed it, and the owner did an awesome job of maximizing our time in there, but also letting us “solve” it.
And I really thought it was cool that we got to go in the time machine and “travel” back in time and solve clues in another time period, too. It really felt like the time machine was moving, when we were in it (it was between the two rooms).
After we were done the owner showed us all around. We got to see the control room, the new escape rooms he’s building, and even behind the scenes stuff for the haunted house. You could tell he LOVED his job and is passionate about it, which I love seeing. And I was happy we could support a local business. I will definitely be back to try the new rooms when they open!
We had a healthy dinner planned after eating out for dinner and lunch – salads and this:
Ha. Steven’s been wanting to make this vegan pigs in a blanket with chili since he saw it in a Facebook video months ago and we finally did. And it was delicious.
After dinner we only had time to plan out three new Kevin James movie plot lines before calling it a night so Anne and Terry could get up early today to drive back to Cleveland. What a fun day and a half together though! I feel like we totally maximized it! And like we’ll all be tired this week, but what’s new there?
Sounds like a great weekend! Yay for both of you having a good race 🙂 I haven’t tried an escape room yet but I really want to. This one sounds like it was really set up well. I love that he even gave you a tour around afterwards.
It was! I am so glad Anne had a good race too (especially since she drove out here for it from Cleveland… and because I am training her!).
I get the feeling you wand Mike would like it!
Yay for a fun visit with Anne and Terry! The Escape Room sounded awesome – we did one a couple years ago and LOVED it. I’ve been wanting to get our group together to do another one; you are inspiring me to see if I can’t make this happen. 🙂
I feel for you with the crappy day before the race – those damn race nerves are so annoying, and YES, they really do wreck you. Glad to hear the race itself went well, at least.
Steven’s dinner looks super fun – shoot, that plus s’mores? You guys put on a good spread for your visitors!
I hope you can get that group together and go! What was the one like that you did previously?
I know you get it! Anne and I were actually talking about our race nerves and how bad you get them for all races and how much it stinks!
Thanks! He LOVES to cook for guests! And we got new s’more skewers in January and were patiently waiting to use them with friends, ha!
The one we did had two rooms – a jail cell, and a sheriff’s office. It was more complex than I anticipated!
I felt that way about ours! Your set up sounds fun!
Fun! Im so glad the race went well maybe they’ll keep its new/original format next year. I think I’d either love or hate an escape room. loving your food choices. I found an all vegan icecream shop just down the street from my new place, it made me think of you 🙂
I hope they keep it! We shall see!
Ooo! Did you stop and get something?! Do so and report back! Ha!
I’m glad you had fun with your guests! I’ve never done an escape room, but I do find them intriguing. I’ve known several people who’ve done them as a corporate bonding activity. My team at work actually did one once for just that purpose, but that was before I worked here, so obviously I wasn’t a part of it. That’s really cool that you got to see the behind-the-scenes stuff!
I think it would be a creative way to do corporate team work (I just CANNOT build any more freaking towers out of paper, ha <---- that is what I always have to do)! I hope you get a chance to try one! We loved seeing the behind the scenes stuff, and finding out which effects he did and which were real (most of them were real)!
Thanks to you and Steven for such a fun weekend!!!! And thank you for documenting it so well 🙂 We’ve both really missed our monthly dates/movie workshopping sessions so it was so fun to spend a couple days with you guys!
You’re welcome! And welcome! I’ve been enjoying writing this weekend recaps, and this one was especially fun!
We miss them so much too 🙁
I never had any interest in doing an escape room until I was forced to do one as a work outing … and ended up having a lot of fun. We were divided into groups of 10 and our escape room was basically finding the right key to get out of the room. What that ended up being was a series of clues to unlock keys to unlock other keys which unlocked other keys … it was lots of keys and trying to figure out combinations to locks (based on a series of clues), and also not an escape ROOM but rooms … we had to get through 3 rooms, I think. I think they purposely make the rooms extremely difficult to get out of on your own, but give you little clues, to maximize your time in there. If you paid $30 and got out in 10 minutes, you might be annoyed. (Or proud?) Anyway, I’d like to go back, but only with a big group and a Groupon.
I’m glad you had fun! Yours sounds challenging!